Coronavirus deaths pass 300 at West Sussex's main hospital trust

It comes as case numbers continue to fall around the county

Dr McMahon expressed his condolences to people who lost loved ones during the pandemic

The total number of deaths linked to coronavirus at West Sussex's main hospital trust since the start of the pandemic has now passed 300.

Of the 312 patients to have died within 28 days of a positive test at the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 41 have passed away in the seven days to Sunday morning (January 24th).

The trust runs St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, Worthing Hospital and Southlands Hospital in Shoreham.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

This means some of the deaths that were first recorded in the latest period may actually have taken place days earlier.

NHS England guidance states:

"Confirmation of Covid-19 diagnosis, death notification and reporting in central figures can take up to several days and the hospitals providing the data are under significant operational pressure."

In total, 984 deaths have been recorded in West Sussex where people had a positive coronavirus test result for Covid-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test in all settings, including care homes, private homes and in hospices.

Mid Sussex has seen the most with 200 deaths, followed by Arun with 186, Horsham with 151, Chichester with 144, Crawley with 134, Worthing with 121 and Adur with 48.

Case numbers continue to decrease in West Sussex

Public Health England data shows that 3,665 people had tested positive for the virus in West Sussex in the seven days to January 19th.

That's a 23% drop on the 4,787 recorded in the seven-day period before, with falls being reported across all seven of the county's boroughs and districts.

As of 9am on Sunday morning, 34,036 people had tested positive for coronavirus in West Sussex since the start of the pandemic.

The rate of infection is 3,939.4 per 100,000 people, below the national average for England (5,662.5) and the South East (4,988).

You can find the number of infections in your local neighbourhood here.

Here's how many people have tested positive for Covid-19 in West Sussex in the last week (figures in brackets show the rate per 100,000 people).

Arun - 767 (477.1)

Crawley - 704 (626.3)

Worthing - 518 (468.5)

Mid Sussex - 515 (341)

Chichester - 466 (384.7)

Horsham - 441 (306.7)

Adur - 274 (426.1)

Here's how many people have tested positive for Covid-19 in West Sussex since the start of the pandemic (figures in brackets show the rate per 100,000 people).

Crawley - 6,351 (5,649.9)

Arun - 6,333 (3,939.5)

Mid Sussex - 5,893 (3,902.1)

Horsham - 4,770 (3,317.3)

Worthing - 4,298 (3,887.1)

Chichester - 3,954 (3,264.3)

Adur - 2,437 (3,790)

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